Just Playing??

February 22, 2024

Aloha,

The ocean was as smooth as glass for our two Whale Watch Cruises from Anaeho’omalu Bay on Wednesday. When we have conditions like that we can see Humpbacks spouting from miles away. Just like on Tuesday, we lost count of the total number of Humpbacks we were seeing during our cruises, but suffice it to say, there were a LOT! We spent most of these two cruises watching Humpback moms with their calves. None of them were particularly active on the surface but we did get to watch a very fun interaction between one calf and her Mom. Baby was literally laying on top of Mom’s big rostrum (her head) at the surface, and Mom was pushing her around. Since Mom wasn’t pushing her away from us (or any other whales we could see) we suspected that this particular interaction wasn’t utilitarian, but just a Mom and her baby playing together.

Meanwhile, up in Kawaihae, guests on our Mid-Morning Whale Watch Cruise were experiencing the same calm ocean conditions. For the entire time we were on the water, we could see a spout, dorsal fin, and/or fluke from a Humpback somewhere in our area. We also got to see a lot of Mom/Calf duos and even got to watch one little calf expressing his excitement (or maybe he was throwing a baby temper-tantrum) by head lunging over and over and over and over and over again.

Mahalo,

Claire

Ocean Sports Whale Fact of the Day: Why don’t diving whales have to clear their ears like we do when we’re diving (or changing altitude in an airplane)? It turns out that whales have pretty rigid Eustachian tubes (those are the tiny tubes that run between your throat and your middle ear). So, unlike what happens to most of us who have to force air through our collapsible Eustachian tubes to equalize pressure in our ears, the airflow is basically unimpeded for our cetacean friends!